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Diablo 2 Items Bringing Home the Bacon

Posted by Hemos on from the moo-moo-oink-oink dept.

||Plazm|| writes: "I read an update over at Diabloii.net that talks about how some items in the game are producing sizeable income for some people. It points to an article at the San Francisco Chronicle describing some of these money makers. One banker claims he's made $25000 since he started with Diablo 2 and Ultima Online! Who are the people paying real money for this stuff? A few bucks is one thing, but a few hundred? I believe this has been talked about on /. before, but is the 'problem' getting worse? Is it a 'problem' at all?"

2 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. The wife... by ryanwright · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A buddy of mine played Everquest every night for months. His wife constantly told him what a waste of time it was. Then, one day, he got tired of the game and sold his high level character on EBay for $1500. She hasn't bothered him about playing games since.

    This sort of thing is no worse than the Beanie Baby craze. If you can make good money playing games (or buying and selling stuffed dolls for hundreds more than the 50 cents worth of material they're made of), more power to you. I'm not into gaming as much as I used to be, but if I was I'd be more than happy to harvest items and sell them for cash. Talk about the ultimate job.

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    -Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
  2. The problems of virtual scarcity... by sterno · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The one problem I can see with having virtual items being sold for real currency is that ultimately the market for items in the on-line world is very malleable. The value of items is ultimately dependent on their scarcity and when the scarcity of an item is as simple as a changed parameter in a computer system, I can see real problems developing.

    A couple examples of what could go wrong:

    1) Somebody buys an item for $1000 figuring that it's going to go up in value. A few days later, the game designers decide to make that item very common. Can the game designers be held liable for financial losses incurred by that person's failed speculation?

    2) In a permutation on item 1, what if the developers had made that change intentionally to destroy the market for those items?

    3) What if a game designer adds a powerful item so that they can corner the market, selling them off for a handsome profit?

    4) What if a bug in the system accidentally causes a fluctuation in the scarcity of a particular item (making it much easier to come by)?

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